Yesterday was the first trip to the beach of the summer.
I will admit I’m not the best parent when it comes to doing ‘activities’ for the boys. I wouldn’t call myself a recluse…but I enjoy the relaxing sport of sloth. Especially when you couple it with gluttony. Which is exactly how I got myself too chunky and what I try to avoid these days.
Wait…I’m off track. This is about the beach. Right. Back to it, then.
The boys took to the water like true normal kids. Begging to get to it while I’m trying to get them to eat a little, drink a little and help a little with the set up. Then two seconds of going in and there are tears because the salt water stings any cuts and exclamations because the water is “freezing”. This isn’t cold, you wussies, I tell them jokingly and hand them their boogie boards and shoving them at the water. The baby’s too little yet so he just sports in the waves.
My friend Eithne and her girls went with us. The youngest eagerly grabbed her board and joined in. The oldest (ah the lovely site of a moody, preteen 12 year old girl sulking…good times.) she refused to go in due to a sudden feeling her suit wasn’t up to par and wanted to go boarding in her shirt and shorts, leaving nothing to wear AFTER the day of swimming.
I parked myself in my beach chair and appraised the cubs lying near us. Very nice. It felt wonderful to look pretty good in a bathing suit again. I was by NO means the hottest mother there but I’d like to think (and it could just be my ego!) that I was ONE of the many hot mom’s on the beach yesterday.
The day was perfectly overcast, lessening my fear the youngest would come home with skin as red as his hair. I mean I’ve got waterproof spf 70 on him hourly and still!!
The overcast day kept Eithne complaining it was too cold as she huddled in her suit, clothes and a beach towel. You think coming from Ireland she’d have thicker skin. She’s only been in America, what 15 years, and apparently she has over-acclimatized to the Southern California weather…where we freak out when it rains and things like the cold and clouds startle us.
Not me, I’m fearless…or is that stupid…no I got it I’m foolish! Wait…what was I talking about….scroll up. Ah, yes…the beach…scroll down.
The kids had a blast. No one got excessively burned and no one turned blue from the cold water which happens with my oldest and youngest who don’t have any body fat on their body. I think the middle one sucks it out of them while they all sleep. And I got wonderful girl-time with one of my best friends. A good day, indeed. Very relaxing.
When I was growing up my cousins lived in Malibu about an hour’s walk to the beach and we went a lot. It remember body surfing, all six of us, for hours. So long that when we decided to get out and get food we were so far down the beach it was a really long walk back to our moms.
As an adult I’m sure they had a much closer eye on us than we thought. I know Eithne and I ‘count heads’ all the time when the kids are in the water. Especially since mine don’t really know how to swim. I KNOW…stop nagging…teaching takes practice and that takes time and motivation on their part and both are in short supply.
Anyway…the beach has always been a part of my life, but not as big a part as other Southern Californians. I’m not overly fond of sand. And while I tan well, I’m also not overly fond of cancer. But I’ve had friends who dragged me to the beach in the summer all my life and Eithne is the current one. She adores it and boogie boarding so during the summer months I try to coordinate 2 trips a month for the kids sake.
Since I always try to leave with a funny, I’ll tell you the story of the weirdest beach experience I had. My then friend Lydia and I went to the beach. She was a transplant from Alabama who also adored the beach, I shrugged and did my friend thing. So we drove the long hour, fought for parking, dragged the stuff to the beach and sat out.
We went on a Saturday so of course the beach was PACKED. We finally found a clear spot and while it wasn’t the best spot we were the queens of making do. And so the day went on as usual and finally ended. When we were packing it in I noticed that the HUGE mound of seaweed we’d been next to was actually a dead seal or sea lion. We had to act casual or look like idiots for NOT knowing we’d been next to a dead thing for 4 hours but boy did we let our willies out when we got to the car.
That explained why there were so… many… flies…. everywhere! Eewh!